April 26: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company Limited (FMTCL) has yet again failed to procure paddy as per its target this year.

Since the state-owned company has not been able to purchase even half of the paddy as per its target, questions have been raised about the minimum support price of paddy fixed by the government for the welfare of the farmers.

Stakeholders say that the government announces the minimum support price only for the sake of announcement.

Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the Agriculture Campaign for Food, said the government fixes the support prices but does not give much attention towards its implementation.

After the government fixes the support price, the state-owned company sets the purchase target accordingly. However, the official said that it was a shame not to be able to buy even half of the target.

The FMTCL had initially targeted to buy 30,000 metric tonnes of paddy from farmers in the current fiscal year. 

Later, the company said it is not possible to buy in that quantity, and then revised the purchase target. This time the company set a target of purchasing 20,000 metric tons of paddy. But the company has not been able to purchase that amount of paddy. According to the latest data, the FMTCL has bought only 9,000 metric tonnes of paddy.

The company has purchased 9,000 metric tonnes of paddy from nine offices, including Birtamod, Biratnagar, Rajapur and Dhangadhi.

The company has procured 1600 metric tonnes of paddy from Birtamod, 1496 metric tonnes from Biratnagar, 1785 metric tonnes from Lahan, 1664 metric tonnes from Janakpur, 1783 metric tonnes from Birgunj, 225 metric tonnes from Nepalgunj, 780 metric tonnes from Rajapur, five metric tonnes from Dhangadhi and 116 metric tonnes from Mahendranagar.

The company’s failure to buy paddy as per the target is not a new issue. Last year, it had set a target of purchasing 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy, but only 22,000 tonnes were procured. The company did not meet the target of buying wheat either.